


“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” ― Rumi

by notjustmom



Series: One More Vow [5]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Tony Stark/Stephen Strange, M/M, Post car crash, married, non-canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:59:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21588751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: Mostly angst, sorry, bits of fluff and humor, but dealing with the aftermath of Stephen's accident. This is my offering to my lovely readers, to whom I am ever grateful, every day of the year, but especially around the holidays/silly season. Love to all of you. <3 <3 <3
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark & Stephen Strange, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Series: One More Vow [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1513868
Comments: 8
Kudos: 62





	“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.” ― Rumi

Tony yawned and got up from his chair, he needed to stretch, move, do something, he should be able to do something, other than just sit by and do nothing but sit and tap away on his phone. There had to be something he could do for him, there had to be.

“Tony.”

He spun on his heel to face him, and leaned in close to listen.

“Water?”

“Yeah.” He picked up the cup and held the straw to his mouth, and met his questioning gaze. He should have known, they had been together long enough that he knew every single one of his tells and he was far too exhausted to even try to hide what he felt at the moment, there was no point.

He nodded, then rolled his eyes as Tony wiped his face for him. “I know there are things you could be doing at home, and I know Peter needs you.” He shook his head at him, but Stephen gave him _the look_ and knew he wasn’t done saying what he needed to say. “I don’t say it enough, I mean, I didn’t say it enough before the accident, how very grateful I am for you.”

“Sunshine.”

“Not done.”

Tony managed to grin for the first time in nearly a week, and ran his fingers lightly through Stephen’s hair, then waited for him to go on. “I know you know I love you more than I can usually tell you, but I just want to thank you for being my family, you and Pete are the closest thing to family I’ve really ever had, besides Christine, and I - I’m not sure I can ever truly explain what that means to me. I always thought as long as I had my work, that I was of use to someone... I can count the number of people I trust on one hand, but I didn’t understand what that trust meant until I opened my eyes to see you sitting there next to me when I came to that morning. I know you think you aren’t doing me any good by sitting here, that you have bigger and better things to do with your time -"

“That’s not -”

“We both know, even as brilliant as you are, there is nothing you can do to fix my hands, even if you stayed up for days on end, my career is over, Tony. It doesn’t mean my life is. You keep showing me that every single day, just by being here.”

Tony leaned down closer and pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, then pulled away as he felt tears stream down his face, and realized he hadn’t cried since the accident two weeks earlier, it had been five days since Stephen had opened his good eye, and he only left his side when Christine could sit with him. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I -”

“It’s okay. Damn it! I just want to touch you so badly, Tony.”

Tony wiped his eyes on his sleeve, and whispered, “I know, Sunshine. I - I just, I hate feeling helpless, I just want so much to take your pain for you, and the idea that I can’t make this better for you, is unbearable to me, I keep thinking -”

“Come ‘ere.”

Tony sniffled, then leaned in close again and sighed as Stephen kissed him, and he leaned his forehead carefully against his and closed his eyes. “Love you, so very much, Stephen.”

“Me too. I’m going to take a nap, go get some fresh air, for me?”

“Stephen.”

“Tony, please?”

He nodded and kissed him gently one more time. “I have my phone if they need to find me -”

“Go.”

“Going.”

“Tony?” Christine glanced up from her work to see him leaning against her office doorway. “What is it?”

“He’s fine, as fine as -”

“What?”

“There really isn’t anything that can be done for him, for his hands?”

“Tony -”

“I just worry that he's putting on a brave face right now, for my benefit, he never complains about the pain he’s in, and I know -” He walked into her office and dropped into the chair in front of her. “I just cried in front of him, just a couple minutes ago, I didn’t mean to, - but I let him see. I, I guess I’m just mourning the life we had, the life we were going to have, but I didn’t mean to, I don’t ever want him to think -”

“Tony. You’re worn out, and somehow existing on terrible coffee and even worse food that you barely touch, and I have the feeling that you’ve never been through something like this before, that you care so much for someone who is in the pain he's in. I know you’re in pain yourself all the time, and you are trying your best -”

“Chrissy, don’t -”

“I’ve never heard you say a word, but I know what pain you have to be in every single day, and now when you take the battering you do when you put on the armor. He’s told me, you’re the strongest, bravest person he’s ever known, and he knows how hard this is for you. He knows how lucky he is, most people who survive accidents like his. He’s seen some patients -” She searched his exhausted face and rolled her eyes at him. “He told you to get some fresh air, and you’re afraid to leave the building.”

“If something happens to him -”

“Tony, he’s beginning to heal, he was taken off the critical list a few days ago, you know that. He needs to know you can do this for yourself and for him, he trusts you and loves you more than he ever has anyone in his life, and he knows how hard it is for you to sit by his side and know you can’t do anything for him. I’ll go sit with him after I do my rounds, okay?”

“You’ll call me?”

“Go.”

“Boy, you two are bossy this morning.”

“Thank you, Tony.” Tony paused and narrowed his eyes at her as he was about to walk out of the office. “For loving him as you do. I always hoped he’d find someone - and now that, well -”

He strode back into the room, then helped her to her feet and held her as she leaned against him and closed her eyes. “You know, don’t you, I’m here for everything, no matter how hard it gets, I’m here for him and for you?”

“Yeah. I know. Now, go on, it’s a beautiful spring day, take some pictures to show him, maybe go get him one of those ridiculous milkshakes he loves?”

He kissed her cheek and grinned at her. “You want a ridiculous milkshake, too?”

She snorted and began to shake her head, then changed her mind. “Yeah, that chocolate thing -”

“Whipped cream and sprinkles?”

“How else?”

“I’ll be back soon.” He smiled at her and turned towards the door.

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, anytime, Palmer.”

“Hey.”

Stephen turned away from the window, and Tony knew he had caught him at a bad time. 

“Milkshake. Christine said you could, so I did.”

“Tony.”

“Nope.” Tony put the straw to Stephen’s lips and watched as he sighed, then closed his eyes as he took his first sip. The first taste of normal, finally something that hadn’t been taken from him, from both of them. He pulled away for a moment, and again, the love he found in Tony’s eyes, made him tremble.

“I know, this couldn’t have been a part in any plan you ever had for your life -”

“This? Meaning -”

“Tony.”

He put the milkshake on the table, and ran his fingers through his hair, then sighed and met Stephen's eyes. “A plan. Right.

Any plan I had for my life was blown to smithereens when I woke up in an Afghanistan cave with an electromagnet in my chest that was attached to a car battery. And then, again when I lost, ‘lost’ that’s such a terrible euphemism, like I misplaced her or something. When I learned that Annie died, that ended so many plans I had, and then I met you. I had given up planning anything at all when I met you. I couldn’t even begin to conceive of a plan. 

I, uhm. I know we didn’t choose traditional vows when we married almost four years ago now, and I was hoping for a better setting to renew them, but, when I was out, the jeweler called. They uhm, had to cut the chain to take it off, it was, anyway, Christine made sure they kept it safe and she found a guy who could fix it, and they did it somehow, a rush job. I wanted to put this back where it belongs, around your neck.” 

He opened the clasp, then carefully placed it around Stephen’s neck and closed it again, then adjusted the ring so Stephen could look down and see it. “They added a few more links to make it longer. Stephen. Look at me. We aren’t conventional, we never will be, but I had hoped you understood that when I married you, it was for better and for worse. You have seen me at my best, I think, and at my worst and everything in between, and you have stayed with me, any way. This is just a slight divergence to whatever our path is meant to be, Sunshine. I need you to understand I’m not here because I feel I owe you, or I pity you, but because I love you, and there is no other place I would rather be than by your side.”

He laid his hand gingerly on his face, and felt the scraggy beard that was beginning to grow out in earnest under his fingertips. “I think I can do something about this, if you want me to, it must be itching like crazy about now.”

Stephen blinked back tears as he nodded. “Please, you have no idea. Thank you."

"No, Stephen, thank you."


End file.
